Missing
by JediMadds
Summary: Inspired by Soul Eater Repeat Show Closing 1. Who just gives up on their partner? On the person they've sworn to fight with and protect? Who cares if it'd been two months? Who cares if there was talk about ending the search?
1. Chapter 1

_AN: Aite so I discovered this -__ watch?v=t88inO52Gps__ otherwise known as the first repeat show opening of Soul Eater (the repeat show just being Soul Eater with new intros/outros, nothing's changed so don't worry about it, unless you'd like to see the intros/outros in which case I'll have them all linked at the bottom!) through gifs on Tumblr and it inspired this fic. So yeah, enjoy, I'm new to the whole writing thing so please don't judge too harshly! Constructive criticism always accepted!__Oh yeah, this one is anime verse because of how I wanted to do the story. Busted this out at 4am so bound to be a lot of mistakes, I apologize ahead of time!_

_**I might do a sequel if people like it/ want it/ask for it.**_

_**I don't own Soul eater!**_

**Missing**

Maka stared at her mattress, her back against the wall and her knees pulled up, a pillow that her head laid on sitting on top of them. She could hear it, the creak of the door as Soul pushed it open, making some comment about how pouting all day isn't going to help anyone, and then closing it again. She pressed her face into the pillow, wrapping her arms around herself tight, fresh tears pricking at her eyes, gathering in the corners. He was driving her insane. She scrubbed at her face furiously, sleep a simple memory at this point in time anyway. She showered and dressed quickly, putting up her hair and strapping on her boots, before calling,

"Soul, hurry or we'll be late!" Maka flinched as she spoke, before grabbing her coat and practically ripping it off the hook as she hurried outside, more salty tears stinging at her shut eyes. She could hear him calling.

"_Wait up Maka! What the hell is up with you today?" _She squeezed them tighter closed as she ran, tears dripping off her chin. _"Maka!" _She put her hands over her ears, and ran a good quarter of the way to Shibusen before she stopped, panting for breath. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve again, before leaning up against the nearest building. She was fine. She was always fine. Maka kept the tears at bay by force as she waited for the redness and puffiness around her eyes to fade a little before continuing her walk to school. There was a growl of a motorcycle in the distance, and Maka clenched her fists as she refused to let anymore tears fall. She was _stronger _than this.

Maka arrived at the academy, and sucked in a sharp breath, before putting on the best fake smile she could muster as she walked through the halls. She was running a bit late today, so there was no one in the halls as she walked to Professor Stein's classroom.

Everyone was already in the class when she arrived, but it looked like Professor Stein had yet to start, so when she apologized for being late he told her it was fine and to sit. She gave him that false smile, and saw the flash of pity and sadness behind his glasses. She knew he could see right through her with his Soul Perception, but she forced a hop in her step as she walked. Despite everything he might say or do, Stein really cared for all his students, and he hated seeing one of his best reduced to a cracking façade. He started a lesson, something about improving resonance between partners and between groups, and Maka really did try to pay attention, but it slipped away after a while. She pointedly ignored the questioning look Soul was giving her. She didn't care for these antics.

She could feel her mind unraveling with every concerned look he shot her way. Her hands were shaking and her teeth were gritted as she fought to keep the tears back. Finally, the bell for lunch break rang, and she shot up out of her seat, fleeing the classroom without caring what the others would think.

"_Maka wait! What's up with you lately, why are you avoiding me! Maka!"_ She could practically feel the brush of his fingers on her clothes as he reached out to stop her, so she put on a burst of speed, her vison blurry. She didn't care where she ended up as long as it was far from _him._

God she missed him so much.

She hated it. Every day of pitying looks and sympathetic stares. Watching partners joke around and train together, watch partners argue and fight with each other. She hated being so envious of others. She hated the fact that her dad kept pestering her to get reassigned to another weapon. She could never do that, not when Soul wasn't even dead. Who just gives up on their partner? On the person they've sworn to fight with and protect? Who cares if it'd been two months? Who cares if there was talk about ending the search?

"Why!?" She screams, the only one around to hear her frustration is herself. "Why'd you leave Soul? I thought you promised you'd always be by my side!" It's quieter now, more of a broken sob than a yell. She could try and blame him, but it'd never change the fact it was her fault. She kept running, and then she passed something. It happened so quick, she thought it might just be another hallucination, but she reacted anyway, skidding to a stop and spinning around so fast she almost gave herself whiplash.

Empty. There wasn't a snowy haired boy with crimson eyes and a black leather jacket in the alleyway after all.

Maka leaned over gasping, her hands on her knees, tears falling freely from her eyes and onto the ground. Her chest felt tight and her heart was fluttering, she was on the verge of an anxiety attack. She focused on the ground, trying to calm down but it seemed impossible, she wanted to scream and cry and punch a wall all at the same time.

Shoes.

They came in at the edge of her vision.

Simple and brown, made in batches of thousands, nothing special.

Oh but these ones were. How many times had she set hers down next to his? How many times had she yelled at him for putting his still shoe clad feet on the table? She knew them as well as she knew her own, familiar scratches etched into them.

Maka sucked in a breath. She looks upwards.

He's standing there. Not the faded out version her mind conjured to torture her, the one that followed her around constantly reminding her of what she lost.

It's really him. It has to be. He's giving her this look, like "what are you doing you weirdo" with a touch of concern hidden in his eyes. She stares, and he breaks out into a grin, laughing, deep and familiar. Soul puts a hand on her head, ruffling her hair and pushing her head down a bit like he hadn't been gone for two months. The shock is gone, and she's angry, how could he just come back and act like nothing had happened? How could he just come back and act like it wasn't her fault he'd been taken in the first place?

"What are you doing here!?" Maka yells, pushing off her knees and standing at full height, a little too short to be eye to eye with him. Her eyes are watering, and she knows she's pouting instead of glaring, she can feel it on her face, but she's so relieved, she's starting to smile. He puffs some air in her face with a grin, before he fixes his eyes on something in the sky behind her, furrowing his eyebrows as if he's confused and concerned. She turns around too, realizing their reunion would have to wait if something was wrong.

Maka searches for a moment, but nothing seems out of the ordinary other than the darkening clouds, and she turns around to ask what he's looking at, the questioned posed on her tongue.

Soul's gone. He's disappeared as if the breeze blew him away. Fresh pain claws and tears at her chest as she drops to her knees, too numb to feel the pain as she skins them on the concrete. The other one had been more of a figment of her imagination, kind of like the imaginary friends you'd have as a child. She knew he wasn't real. But this, this was a full blown hallucination. Maka thought he was _real_, that he was _back._ Salty tears spilled down her cheeks and trickled off her chin as she sobbed, chest so constricted she felt like she couldn't breathe. It was as worse as losing him the first time as she clutched at her chest, her eyes squeezed shut as tears leaked from them. To think that he was back just to have it ripped away all over again. Guilt twists her stomach and grief robs her lungs, sadness takes her heart and anguish tightens her throat as she cries out. She doesn't notice when the rain starts, pouring from the heavens in thick icy sheets. She's too far gone to care.

Eventually Maka exhausts herself, her throat is sore and she's hiccupping as she pulls herself under a banner as shelter from the rain. She realizes she's shaking, and thinks she should go home, but has no energy or will to move, so she pulls her legs to her chest and wraps her arms around them as she buries her face in her knees. Tears are still dripping from her eyes as the rain starts to lull her to sleep. She wonders if someone will take her too, like the witch did with Soul. Maybe the witch will come and take her, too. Maybe she could find Soul. Maybe they could get away together. She missed him so much, longing a physical ache in her bones. The pitter patter of rain on stone is soothing, and soon she's drifted into a deep sleep.

Someone's shaking her awake, and her brain registers its later now. She see white hair and a leather jacket and mumbles his name as she slips back into unconsciousness.

The first thing she feels is warmth, then some soft fabric. She clutches it closer and falls back asleep.

"-getting out of hand."

"Yeah, but what are we supposed to do about it? They've called off the search, even Kid can't do anything about it."

"We also have to consider the fact that-"Silence, and the speaker swallows. "That he might be dead." The voice is quiet. No one speaks. Maka rolls over and brings the blanket over her head. She falls back asleep with the sting of tears in her eyes.

"Who gives a crap what they say? I say Soul's still out there, and a great star like me is never wrong!" Some nervous laughter.

"I agree with Black*Star. Soul would never give up on one of us, so we can't give up on him."

"You're right. We'll just have to find him ourselves then."

Maka listened to the words of her friends, head pounding and throat dry, and she manages a watery smile. She reaches out for the cup on the nightstand, and someone says her name. A hand beats her too it, and gives her the cup. She looks up to find its Black*Star, and he grins at her.

"Don't worry, we're gonna find him and bring him back, I promise, so don't cry anymore." Maka gives him a small smile as she rubs her eyes, looking around and giving a determined nod, before dropping into a coughing fit. Tsubaki gives a small laugh.

"Well, it'll have to wait until we've gone over all the information the teams have gotten and Maka's back at full health, but we'll definitely bring him home soon!" A chorus of "yeahs" follow her statement and Maka gives them a small smile before looking out her window. Soul was somewhere out there.

'_You hear that Soul? We're coming for you, hold on a little longer.'_

**AN: Thanks for reading! Outros/intros as promised! Links open in YouTube!**

**Intro 1:** ** watch?v=M4PZwBHbtx **

**Intro 2:** ** watch?v=ZtgsT0Ry7yk **

**Outro 1 (inspiration for this fic):** ** watch?v=t88inO52Gps **

**Outro 2:** ** watch?v=DhE1TJ3Khl4 **

**Please let me know if any of the links are broken and I will try to fix them at once! Videos ****DO NOT ****belong to me!**** Also do let me know if you'd like a continuation or for it to be left here! **


	2. Chapter 2

_AN: Omg I am so sorry this took so long! I went on vacation for a week and I thought I would have time to finish this and I ended up not having any time at all! So again I'll apologize this was supposed to be put up so much sooner I'm sorry. As of right now I am going to try very hard to get the next chapter posted in two weeks or less, and that goes for every following chapter as well. So, upon popular request I will be continuing this! Just a quick thanks to all my quest reviewers who I cannot personally reply to, thanks for reading and your support, it's lovely to know you're there! This is my first multi-chapter story so please bear with me as some chapters will be better and some chapters will be worse!__** For this, I'm gunna go ahead and say Medusa survived (that snake in one of the end credits?) so that Soul and Maka didn't end up getting her soul and making him a Death Scythe. She will not be appearing in this story, I just wanted to explain why he wasn't already a death scythe. Follows Anime-verse, but I threw in some manga stuff, and as Manga-verse stuff come's in I'll explain it in the notes for anyone who doesn't understand! **__Oh and I realized the links didn't show, so I apologize for that but the videos are up on youtube in 1080p HD if you search soul eater repeat show ending 1 or opening 1 or whatever one you wanted._ _Please enjoy and forgive my mistakes and long introduction, and how long this took to post!_

* * *

**Missing Chapter 2**

It was dark and dank, and Soul couldn't see anything. The wall was smooth and cool against his spine, and he determined it was more than likely made of metal. The tips of his shoes scuffed against the floor as he lost his purchase and he gritted his teeth as his weight fell on the shackles around his wrists, pain burning up his arm as metal bit into the open cuts already there. His feet scrabbled on the floor before he managed to find his foothold and relieve some of the weight on his wrists with an exhale. His wrists were bleeding, he could feel the slick liquid crawling down his arms. His arms were sore from holding his weight for hours, as well as his ankles from stretching to touch the ground and relieve the pressure on his wrists. The dull throb in his abdomen reminded him not to stretch too much, wary of pulling the stitches, and he tasted blood as the scratch on his forehead dripped blood down his face. It stung, but he had bigger things to worry about. Like, his numbing fingers, for example. He flexed them in an effort to regain some of the blood flow.

Soul could hear the footsteps nearing his cell, body having accustomed to his lack of sight by heightening his other senses, and smelled the ever familiar sent of smoke as she neared the room. Hinges creaked as the door opened, and Soul realized his eyes were closed. He cracked them, the dim firelight from outside stinging as they adjusted.

"How's my finest rat doing? Not dead yet, I hope, since I wasted precious time stitching up that wound for you." Her voice was silky and he could hear the pout behind them. Her face was shadowed, but her eyes literally glowed as she spoke, the orange flames dancing behind her pupil. He laughed once, although it came out of his dry throat more of a cough, and he swallowed before speaking, looking her in the eye.

"It'll take more than that to kill me, Kasai." Her lips curled into a grin.

"Good. It'd be a shame for you to die before my experiments are complete."

"And what might those be, exactly?" Soul pressed. She neared him, pressing her lips to the side of his face before whispering,

"Like I'd tell you." She pulled back, gripping his chin and forcing his gaze upwards at her. "You know, you've lasted a lot longer than the other weapons I've captured. I never knew black blood gave such strength. Perhaps Medusa's dabbles were not so useless after all." He growled at her, and she grinned again. "So much spirit as well, I'm surprised you've not yet broken." Kasai released his chin and reached up, unfastening one of his wrists to bring it down to her mouth. Her eyes glittered and she stared at him. Soul struggled vainly to free himself from her grip, and she laughed before sinking her teeth into his skin, needle fangs piercing the vein and then releasing him. There was a crimson crescent on his skin, although no profuse bleeding due to the thin fangs not having done any damage to his vein.

Soul tensed, and he felt it before she'd even pulled her mouth away, spitting his blood out with a look of disdain on her face.

It felt like he was being burned alive from the inside, like there was literal fire in his veins, coursing through his blood. Agony exploded in his body, and a scream tore from his throat as his eyes shut and arms tugged at the restraints. Kasai held his face again, inches from her own, and Soul forced watery eyes open to glare at her. He would _not _be broken by her. She leered at him.

"You won't last much longer though. Such a shame, I loved playing with you." Kasai released him, and headed to the door.

"I… Won't… Break… To… The likes… Of you…" Soul bit out, and she stopped, snapping her head to look at him. He gave her a look, watery but determined. She glared, eyes narrowed, and the burning intensified, white hot led swimming in his blood. Soul cried out again, his crimson eyes snapping shut, and she left him screaming and tugging at his chains.

* * *

Maka reached out for some of the papers on the coffee table, holding her tea in her hands. She had almost gotten over her cold, and was already searching for any possible leads on Soul's whereabouts. After they finished going over all the reports and information, they would be heading back to the location Soul had been taken from. Her grip on the mug became tighter.

_"What kind of power is this?" Maka whispered, standing close to Soul. She could feel him tense besides her. The building before them was burned to a crisp, black ash and debris littering the floor in front of them. Multiple teams of police and firefighters stood before them. Maka could see burnt remains peppering the rubble._

"Maka?" A voice shook her from the memory, and Maka realized it must have been written on her face. She looked up at Tsubaki, who was giving her a concerned look. "Maybe you should get some rest, you've been at this for hours." Maka shook her head.

"I'm fine, besides, the sooner we find Soul, the better." Tsubaki gave her a worried look, but agreed, knowing that there was no swaying Maka when she'd set her mind to something.

Maka stared at the words on the page, reading but not really comprehending as she skimmed over the words. She was there, she knew what happen better than the people writing these reports in the aftermath.

_"Whoever did this must be strong. It'll be a tough one." Maka says. Soul grins at her._

_"I'm not worried." He pulls his hands back behind his head as they walk, tilting his head up and closing his eyes against the sun. "No one's more qualified than us." Maka glares at him._

_"Just because we have Genie Hunter doesn't mean we can slack off and run in unprepared!" Soul rolls his eyes._

_"I know that. I'm just saying that there's no reason to worry about it." He cracks his eyelids and tilts his head to meet her eyes. "We're strong enough together." Maka flushes a bit, pouting. Soul grins. "It'll be a piece of cake."_

Maka grits her teeth as she sets the papers back down on the table. Tsubaki watches her, a helpless look on her face. Maka stands, and her bangs are covering her eyes, but Tsubaki can tell from the way her voice sounds that she's crying, or on the verge of it.

"I'm going to the restroom." Maka clenches her fists as she walks. _'But we weren't strong enough together, were we?' _She thinks bitterly. She switches on the faucet and cups her hands under it, watching the clear cool water pool before bringing it up and splashing her face.

_"What the hell kind of power is this?" Soul's yell echoes through their link. Maka dodges another blast of hot orange flames. "I thought witches were like animals or something?!" Maka rolls to her feet, breathing heavy._

_"You're correct, weapon." The voice is filled with twisted joy and humor. Maka's eyes widen, and she can feel Soul's surprise ringing through their link._

_"How can you hear him?" Maka hisses._

_"Do you miesters think you're the only ones capable of resonance links and soul perception?" Maka's eyes widen further, and she dodges another ball of flame._

_"But it's not possible! For you to be able to hear our link, I'd have to connect with you as well!" Maka yells, tightening her grip on Soul. There's laughter, and it echoes throughout the large old stone building, making it impossible to pinpoint. Maka turns her head with a grimace, trying to figure out where the next attack might come from. Her soul perception had been rendered useless when she realized she couldn't see the witch's soul._

_The voice is quiet and next to her ear. Maka freezes as she feels hot breath brush her skin._

_"There's much you don't know." Hands wrap around her neck, and on instinct she drops Soul to pry at the hands on her throat._

_"Maka!" Soul's voice is loud now, not the version in her soul that echoes but physical. She see's white hair on the edge of her vision. His red and black blade is at the witch's throat in an instant._

_"Let. Her. Go." He growls, pressing the cool metal against her skin. The witch smiles._

_"Big mistake." She releases Maka, and blows Soul back with orange and yellow and heat._

_"Soul!" Maka yells, her eyes widening._

_"Relax, that fire was no hotter than a luke-warm shower. I need him intact. You, on the other hand, are useless." The witch neared closer, and Maka stepped back, her back brushing the wall. "You should have been more prepared, you were facing the dragon witch Kasai. Now the question is, do I burn you or tear you to bits?" Maka stared at Soul over Kasai's shoulder, who laid unmoving at the opposite wall, white hair dusted grey with ash. She needed to get to him, she couldn't fight without him. _

_The witch put her palms out in front, lips moving in a chant._

_Maka waited. _

_The witch's palms started to glow._

_Her instincts screamed get out of the way, her muscles itched to move, but she stood still, clenching her fists._

_The glow changed from constant to the flicker of flame, and Kasai smiled. The flame moved._

_Now!_

_Maka bolted to the right, the fire brushing her side as she ran, and she cried out, gritting her teeth as the heat burned her skin, but continuing anyway. She was almost there, she just had to get to him. She could see him starting to stir._

_It hit her. Hard. The impact sent her flying off her feet, and the last thing she remembered was falling._

_Maka awoke in an infirmary, her partners for the mission in the room with her. Tsubaki was standing near her trying to stop Black*Star from climbing on the medicine cabinet. She sat up in a rush, immediately regretting it when the room spun and her head pounded. The events were fuzzy, but she understood what happen. Tsubaki was at her side almost instantly, and Black*Star was ranting about his godly powers waking her up. She manages to get her throat working._

_"How's Soul?" Tsubaki's face becomes pained, and Black*Star actually quiets._

_"Maka I'm so sorry. We didn't get there in time." Maka's world stopped, and she stared at Tsubaki blankly. "She took him. Soul's missing."_

Maka shook her head. She didn't have time to be thinking about that. She splashed more water on her face, before drying it with a towel. _'What's done is done. I need to focus on getting him back.'_ She exits the room with fresh determination, and sits back down on the couch, picking up the report she left off on. Maka gives Tsubaki a small smile, before focusing on the words before her.

* * *

"So what do we know for sure?" Maka asks the group of friends sitting before her.

"Well, we know who took him, the dragon witch Kasai." Liz says.

"We know she needed him for something. Needed him alive, which leads us to believe she wouldn't have killed him." Kid supplies, a hand under his chin. "But for what, I wonder."

"Fire!" Patty squeals, putting her palms out in front of her and holding them there making "whoosh" noises as if she had hot flames shooting from her hands.

"Yeah, we know her abilities." Liz clarifies.

"There's also her ability to invade resonance links, and implied soul perception abilities." Tsubaki adds.

"And soul perception isn't useable on her." Maka says, tone serious.

"Come on, all we need to know is she's the bitch who took Soul from us, and I'm gonna get some major pay back when I get my hands on her!" Black*Star says, cracking his fingers. "She's gonna regret taking a friend from such a big star!" Maka gives a small grin at the words.

"We but we gotta find her first." Maka pulls out a map of Europe. "There have been seven incidents reported like the Soul, myself, Tsubaki, and Black*Star investigated, and like the one where Soul was taken." She points at marks on the map. "Each one has been near DWMA branches. The two most recent ones, both the one we investigated and the one where Soul was taken, have been on the outskirts of bases in the British branch in London." She points at a specific place on the map. "That's where we're headed." Maka looks up at the group surrounding her. "Anything else?"

"Missing weapons." Patty supplies in a sing song tone, playing with the edge of the map. Maka gives Liz a confused look, and she shrugs.

"What weapons Patty?" Liz asks softly, and Patty looks at her.

"The ones not with their miester." Liz's eyes widen, and she looks at Maka. Maka pulls out a report from each location. Her eyes widen as she reads.

"Seven of the people confirmed dead were DWMA miesters, but there's nothing about their weapons in here." Maka looks up. "The DWMA would never send a miester weaponless anywhere."

"You mean, she's taking weapons?" Tsubaki asks, tone horrified.

"Well she's not getting her hands on _my _weapon! The mighty Black*Star wouldn't even let that witch touch her!" Black*Star gives Tsubaki a grin, and she gives a small smile back at his odd reassurance. "Besides, what kind of miester lets their weapon get taken?" Maka flinches at the wording, and surprisingly enough, Black*Star seems to realize he's misspoken. "Uh, shit, I mean-" Maka waves him off, her teeth gritted and fists clenched.

"No you're right. I should have been more prepared, I should have looked at the reports closer. It's my fault and I know it."

"Maka-" Tsubaki tries, her tone reassuring, but Maka stops her.

"We should get going, we need to get to the airport in time for our flight." Maka goes to her room. Tsubaki whacks Black*Star on the shoulder, and he puts a hand to the back of his head.

"Sorry." He says lowly, tone sincere.

Maka returns with a suitcase, and they put the reports back in the bag before Kid has a driver take them to the airport.

They arrive at Death City airport with minor traffic issues despite it being noon, and once they get to the terminal, they flash DWMA IDs and say there's an emergency, asking to be put on the next flight headed to London. As they head to security, Maka wonders if they'll be contacted in the middle of the flight through a tiny mirror one of the stewardesses gives them and asked why they were using emergency passage without DWMA allowance. At the moment, she couldn't care less about punishment. Each step lands her closer to finding Soul.

They get through security with minor issues, and board the plane quickly and quietly. The plane has three seats on each side, so Kid, Liz, and Patty sit on one side, and Maka, Tsubaki, and Black*Star sit on the other. Maka stares out the window as they wait for the plane to depart. She feels a touch on her shoulder.

"You should get some sleep, you're still a little sick, and you haven't been sleeping much lately." Maka nodded absently, returning her gaze to the window as the announcer came over the speaker. As the plane started to move down the runway, Maka gripped the hand rest tightly.

Ironically enough considering what she does, Maka did not like flying. When she was younger, her parents, before their divorce, had taken her to California to see the coast, and on their way back they'd gotten caught in one of Death Valley's rare thunderstorms. They landed fine, but the experience terrified her.

Soul knew of this, and while he teased her about her fear of planes, whenever they rode on one he distracted her with stupid word games or stories, or simply let her rest on his shoulder, when they took off or landed. While they were in the air, they'd watch movies or play card games since it was hard for her to concentrate on reading a book. On flights with particularly rough turbulence, he'd sling an arm around her shoulder with a muttering of how uncool she was being, and they'd sleep or watch a movie with her curled into his side.

Maka's struck with a violent rush of loneliness and longing as she thinks about all the times he's helped her through trips, both pleasure and school related.

As the plane levels and the announcer declares passengers could move, Maka loosened her belt and pulled her knees up into the chair, wrapping her arms around herself and leaning against the wall of the plane, the armrest digging into her side as she settled. She closed her eyes and forced herself to relax. It was going to be a long trip.

* * *

She jolted out of sleep, nightmares fading as the plane shook. The seatbelt sign flicked on and Maka felt her stomach rise to her throat.

"We're passing through a bit of a storm, so there will be some turbulence for a little while. We ask that all passengers stay in their seats until the captain declares it safe enough to move around the cabin once more."

_'Fan-fucking-tastic.'_ Maka thinks, not bothering to mind her internal language as she shifts her feet back into the floor and tightens her belt once more. She pulls a book out of her carry on.

Maka got through a few lines before the plane shuddered again, which caused her to lose her place and restart the paragraph. After repeating this cycle multiple times, she declared the process useless. As Maka shoved the book back into her carry on, she caught eye of them. She didn't even know why they were in her bag, typically Soul carried them, but here they were, sitting there to remind her of what she lost. The top of the box of cards long since fallen off, worn, tattered cardboard barely kept together by a rubber band on the edge of snapping. The tops of the cards were in no better shape, bent and frayed, corners starting to come apart from overuse.

Maka remembered their first trip out, a kishin egg in Chicago. She tried so hard to cover up her fear of planes, and he saw right through her. Soul had pulled out the cards and said, "Why don't we play a game? You pick."

Maka remembered a flight to Russia, rough due to a small storm in the area, where they ended up being redirected. Soul pulled a blanket out of the carry on, and gave Maka half his seat. They huddled together and played a couple of matches as the cards shook on the tray table.

Maka remembered one of their trips to Paris. They'd gotten into a fight over something she couldn't remember anymore before they'd left for Death City Airport. Neither of them had talked on the way there or while they were waiting to board, locked in a silent battle of stubbornness. Once they were on the plane Maka could feel the nerves in her stomach, but she didn't say a word, simply gripped the armrest tighter with every passing moment. After a few minutes, Soul sighed and smirked, saying, "I guess I'll forgive you." Maka was too busy talking angrily at him for the next 15 minutes to realize they were already off the ground. When she did realize it clicked that he did it on purpose, and she pouted at him, to which Soul grinned and lowered his table, pulling out a stack of cards.

Maka zipped the bag up hastily, furious with herself for getting worked up over something so small. The plane shook again, and Maka had a death grip on the armrest. She was high-strung, exhausted, on a _plane, _and about to lose whatever sanity she had left. She pulled the files out of her carry on. Maka notes Tsubaki side eyeing her, and ignores it, pouring over the reports once more in hopes of finding something else that might have been missed by the team. She could make out everyone's notes on the edges, hers, Tsubaki's, Kid's, and Liz's notes, outlining important matters, Black*Star's signature scattered throughout the pages, and Patty's doodles littering the margins.

After a few moments, she manages to slip into her "research zone" as Soul had named it, focusing on the words in front of her and carefully studying them, the idea that something in there could possibly lead to Soul's location keeping her attention steady enough to beat out the minor shaking of the plane.

* * *

It was dark. Then again it was always dark so it wasn't like Soul expected anything different. His head pounds, and he feels dizzy chained up against the wall as he breathes heavily, sweat dripping off his skin. His entire body aches, muscles complaining and stiff from being in the same position for extended periods of time. She hadn't tortured him as bad as that in a long while. He's cold now that the burning in his veins has subsided, gooseflesh rising on his skin as the stale air brushes it, but he still feels hot at the same time, although it's different now. Soul is muttering something about liking his shirt back, it had never been returned when the witch was forced to stitch up his stomach, when she appears. The door cracks, and her voice seeps in, soft as fleece and quiet, so heartbreakingly familiar.

"Soul?" It's hopeful and distressed, longing evident in the tone. Soul sucks in a breath, and it comes again as the door opens wider. "Soul, are you in here?" Louder and unsure what to expect.

"Maka?" Soul says, voice quiet and hoarse, hope and relief bleeding into his voice. The door opens wider, and surprisingly the light doesn't hurt his eyes. He focuses, and Maka is an angel.

In the low light of fire in the hallway, her skin glows with the dim orange hues ethereally. The light spilling behind her almost looks like wings, golden and subtle. She's dressed in her usual black coat and skirt, and god he's never been so happy to see that familiar outfit. Her hair is dark, tired up in it's typical pig tails as it smolders dim gold in the flame light. Jade glows in the dark, reflecting values of yellow and orange, and he watches as joy and relief spark in them. She reaches for him, and he struggles in his chains, trying to pull his hands free. Pain flares in his wrists, and Soul snaps his eyes shut on instinct, hissing at the feeling of cold metal scraping through tissue under his skin. He opens his eyes once more, question on his tongue and relief flooding his veins, only to gaze upon a dark room. He's confused for a moment, before he manages to make it click in his groggy mind.

She hadn't really been there. It'd had just been a figment of imagination propelled by dehydration, hunger, lack of sleep, and infection. Still, recognizing the fact that it was a false reality did not help the different kind of pain tightening his throat and clawing at his soul. Soul missed his partner fiercely, from her hot headedness to her incredible determination, there wasn't another person he wanted to see more in the world the longer he was locked up in some creepy dungeon to be experimented on like a lab rat.

Soul let his head drop back against the stone wall, arms aching and legs stiff. He stared upwards, eyes open even if he couldn't see a thing in the pitch black, pushing the burning in his eyes away. Soul hadn't actually cried a single time despite the different forms of pain he'd been subjected to, both mental and physical, and he'd be damned if he was going to start now.

He pushes away thoughts of his miester, or at least tries too, and focused on what hallucinations themselves meant for him. Maka had told him something a long time ago, he didn't know why the piece of information even stuck in his mind, but it had, and it just became the most useful thing he'd learned.

She'd called it the Rule of Three. It stated that a person could go three minutes without air, three days without water, and three weeks without food. The air clause, at least for now, was deemed unimportant. However, using a slightly skewed sense of time measured by when people came into his cell, about every six hours, Soul reckoned he'd been without water for more than a day and a half. He was also aware of the fact that the familiar haze of fever had been affecting him, making him light-headed and dizzy. Soul could not remember the last time he'd eaten, but he knew he wasn't anywhere near the three week mark. He knew that he'd been fed before, as well as given drinking water, but now that infection had set in Soul guessed that he'd just become too hard to maintain, and once the fever was discovered he'd be killed or left to rot. This meant that'd he'd have to try to make his escape again soon, before they killed him or he became physically unable to.

Soul had tried to bolt three times. First by picking the lock to his cell as he was unshackled, leading to him being shackled, second by managing to pick lock to the shackles and the cell door, leading to him being moved to a new cell where the lock couldn't be picked from the inside and his current shackles, and the third when he ambushed the guard leading him back to his cell after a few experiments.

This time, he was going to try something different. Soul knew that if he behaved well during the experiments, which wasn't often, the witch would "reward" him by having one of the guards take him to a dimly lit room where a meager helping of stale food and a small glass of tap water waited. This room had a window, which was barred and more than a few feet below ground level. Because of the bars and the difficult climb, Soul had deemed that route of escape useless, as he would be caught before he could do anything. However, upon a more recent inspection after his third attempt to escape, he was convinced that he could pry the bars loose with his scythe and get out the window, before the guards entered the room. All that he had to do now was wait.

Soul closed his eyes, relaxing as best he could stringed up against the wall the way he was to try and get some sleep. He was going to need whatever strength he could muster before this attempt, as it was going to be his final. Either he got out or he didn't, and if he didn't, it wouldn't be long before he left in a completely different manner.

* * *

_AN: Alright so I'm not all that happy with this chapter, but the next one will be better I promise! There will hopefully be more action and interesting stuff instead of the filler and information you got in this one. I tried to make this chapter longer that the first one, and expect the next chapter be about the same or longer. I will try my hardest to keep this story quality and stop it at a good length, I defiantly don't want to drag it out and end up with a terrible plot! Thanks for reading, and as always constructive criticism always wanted! __**Also, Maka DOES NOT have her scythe ability in this because I feel like it's appearance in the show was badass but pointless and I didn't like it whatsoever (*cough* just like the ending). So that's why she "can't fight without Soul."**_


End file.
